WTF with Marc Maron Podcast - Episode 815 - Jake Fogelnest / Ron Funches

Episode Date: May 28, 2017

Jake Fogelnest was a teenager with a public access show who was thrust into a high-profile MTV gig and before too long was in rehab for drug addiction. Now Jake's a successful writer and show runner but it all started out with him as a 10-year-old comedy fan going to the clubs of New York City to see people like Marc Maron. Plus, Ron Funches returns to the garage as he gets ready to head out on tour, ready to talk about losing some TV shows but also losing 140 pounds. Sign up here for WTF+ to get the full show archives and weekly bonus material! https://plus.acast.com/s/wtf-with-marc-maron-podcast. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated

category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Calgary is an opportunity-rich city home to innovators, dreamers, disruptors, and problem solvers. The city's visionaries are turning heads around the globe across all sectors each and every day they embody calgary's dna a city that's innovative inclusive and creative and they're helping put calgary and our innovation ecosystem on the map as a place where people come to solve some of the world's greatest challenges calgary's on the right path

forward take a closer look out at calgary economic development.com Path Forward. Take a closer look at CalgaryEconomicDevelopment.com. Lock the gates! Alright, let's do this. How are you, what the fuckers? What the fuck buddies? What the fucking ears?

What the fuck nicks? What the fucking istas? What the fuck astanis? What the fuck ar? What the fucking ears? What the fuck Knicks? What the fucking Istas? What the fuck Astanis? What the fuck Arikans? What's happening? I am Mark Maron. This is my podcast WTF. Welcome to it. If you're new here, just hang out. You'll get the hang of it. There's some things you'll like, some things you won't like, but just just hang out i have a good show today i have uh my buddy uh ron funches the comedian stopped by for a few minutes gonna go on tour wanted to uh say hello and tell people about that he's very funny guy got jake fogel nest on the show who i've known since he was a child kind of when his dad used to bring him to comedy shows in new york but uh some of you know him from mtv back in the day and from his podcast and from public access i believe and uh he's had he's had quite a journey little jake who i'm sure doesn't like being called

little jake but uh but you know me and will arnett were talking about him, and I realized, well, fuck, I got to get Jake in here. I'm going to New York later this week because we're doing the BookCon event this Saturday. I'm going to be talking about the new WTF book, Waiting for the Punch. You can get an advanced copy of the book if you're there. I believe I'll sign them. I believe that's the deal. for the punch you can get an advanced copy of the book if you're there i believe i'll sign them i believe that's the deal for tickets you can go to thebookcon.com for tickets me and uh my producer and business partner brendan mcdonald will be there talking the wtf stuff i tend to like to be

in in front of audiences i'm not going to throw anyone aside to get to uh the front that's not part of my agenda you know yeah hey there's a lot of people in front of me i'm gonna throw them aside and step up not gonna do that because uh it'll be it'll be my show so it'll be a little it'll be a little easier to fight those impulses to be an eight-year-old. Boy, I'm being cryptic, but not so much. You know, I don't... The book con will be fun. It'll be good.

I like to talk, as some of you may have noticed. That was the fun thing about being in Chicagoago doing that uh joe swanberg thing was that you know improvising it's interesting when you do scenes that you have to do over yet you're encouraged to improvise and you can just keep making shit up but i do want to read a couple emails because sometimes i don't always know i don't always understand people's lives or you know because i don't live them but i got an email and it's just from a guy. It says unimportant mail from some dumb foreigner. Hey man, I'm writing this at 6am with no intention of sleeping yet. I just had to say that you are my new idol, man. You just made me understand my anger and also myself over the course of the last six months, gradually getting more and more time

on my daily schedule. I started with ThinkyPain, and now I'm obsessed with these podcasts. Now I'm listening to the one with Jason Schwartzman, and you just said the word gratitude, and that made me want to thank you, man. You changed some Turkish 21-year-old fuck-up's life for better. Thank you for that. Just keep doing what you're doing. Sincerely, some kid in the Middle East.

You know, there just seems to be certain things that we all share to one degree or another. Some of us don't have the same flaws as others, but some flaws that we have speak to other people's flaws. And they're all innately human. It's a small, small spectrum, really, on how you handle your humanity. Gratitude is good. Humility is good. Empathy is good.

Charity is good. Mercy is good. Generally, shutting the fuck up is good sometimes. I would stay away from belligerent, ignorant, immoral, willfully ignorant, proudly dumb, hostile, bullying. You know, the stuff we're getting known for lately. So this is another, you know, I've got to own up to this shit. I got to own up to this shit. And I'd like to clear some stuff up. I got to own up to this shit. And I, and I, and I'd like to clear some stuff up. I'll use this email to address it.

Uh, subject line. I'm addicted to nicotine lozenges because of you. Hello, Mark. I've been addicted to nicotine lozenges for two years. Now, when I was 18,

I picked up a canister of two milligram nicotine lozenges because you had made them sound appealing. At first, the lozenges improved my cognition and suppressed my appetite, but after about eight months, they had begun to lose their effectiveness. To satisfy my increased nicotine tolerance, I began purchasing four milligram mini lozenges, as opposed to the half dollar size lozenges I'd been sucking before.

Nicorette is the most expensive brand, so I've been lowering myself to Walgreens and CVS brands, which lack the distinctive sting of Nicorette brand lozenges. I do not wish to encourage your listeners to emulate my emulation of you. By and large, nicotine lozenges have made me perpetually dehydrated such that I constantly feel thirsty and irritable. I cannot sustain concentration for very long because of those chronic pangs of thirst that accompany prolonged lozenge abuse. Have you experienced this as well? I find that I have to drink two glasses of water for every lozenge that I drop into the

sewer of my mouth. If I don't, the sensation of thirst overwhelms me. I assume you are using mini lozenges since the larger ones obstruct speech to an intolerable degree. I'm going to try to quit them because of this dehydration problem. Please comment on this. Perhaps it would be good of you to prevent dumb and impressionable people like myself from romanticizing

nicotine lozenge addiction. Best in all that, Sam. Interview a scientist at some point. Sam, I am sorry if you feel that I romanticized nicotine lozenges. I understand that, you know, if you like me and you look up to me, you think, I don't think there's anything cool about nicotine lozenges i i understand that you know if you like me and you look up to me you think i i don't think there's anything cool about nicotine lozenges uh they are a practical

solution to a problem uh of addiction to nicotine for me i usually recommend them to people who want to get off cigarettes obviously the best thing to do is stop doing everything. I personally like the little buzz that I get from nicotine lozenges, and I've recently been thinking about quitting them again. But it's primarily because I have an addictive personality and I have a constant itch in my soul that somehow permeates to just beneath my skin that makes life difficult and unbearable. And I know what it feels like to not have that but i eventually find my way around to uh you know i i'm a hyper

caffeinated nicotized motherfucker and i don't feel great about it i didn't mean to romanticize it for me it's just the most practical way in the safest way to ingest nicotine, which is the one of two, occasionally three, if you count my dick, addictions that I have. So I apologize. I didn't mean to be your nicotine lozenge, Keith Richards. You're lucky it wasn't heroin or cocaine or alcohol that I was romanticizing or painfully addicted to, yet in enough denial to make it sound like an amazing way of life. I don't feel like I romanticize these things,

and I do have a certain amount of shame about it, and I apologize. You got strung out on them. It sounds like you weren't even a smoker. So I apologize for that, and I will say to the rest of you if you're not trying to quit smoking cigarettes don't just start nicotine lozenges

don't start smoking either if it's possible addiction is a bitch no matter what you're addicted to if you've got the bug you're going to have it on you for the rest of your life and it's an ongoing struggle and you've got to negotiate with the monkey if you want to keep living. So that said, I apologize, Sam, and good luck getting off them. And by the way, just to make it clear, I do not use the mini lozenges. They dissolve too quickly and make me nauseous.

I do not experience dehydration. I do have some stomach, some gassiness, I believe, because of some of the things that composes the nicotine lozenge. But that is about it for the downside. And I do rely on them in the morning and throughout the day to keep me level, which is my problem. It's not a romanticizing thing. And I didn't mean to mislead you, okay? I'm not here to promote addiction or addictive things. It's just what I do to stay sane

and keep me off worse addictive things. All right, Sam? I'm sorry. So Funch has dropped by. He's heading out on tour starting this week in San Francisco, and he'll be out all over the country through August. You can go to ronfunches.com to see his tour dates. And this is me and Ron Funches here in the country.

You can get anything you need with Uber Eats. Well, almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs and mozzarella balls, yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats, but meatballs and mozzarella balls. Yes, we can deliver that. Uber Eats, get almost, almost anything. Order now. Product availability may vary by region. See app for details. Hi, it's Terry O'Reilly, host of Under the Influence. Recently, we created an episode on cannabis marketing. With cannabis legalization, it's a brand new challenging marketing category. And I want to let you know we've produced a special bonus podcast episode where I talk to

an actual cannabis producer. I wanted to know how a producer becomes licensed, how a cannabis company competes with big corporations, how a cannabis company markets its products in such a highly regulated category, and what the term dignified consumption actually means. I think you'll find the answers interesting and surprising. Hear it now on Under the Influence with Terry O'Reilly. This bonus episode is brought to you by the Ontario Cannabis Store and ACAS Creative. Garage. Look at you, Ron Funches.

Hi. Look at you. You're all svelte. Thank you. Got your hair cut. Yeah. You're looking good. Thank you very much, Mark much i haven't seen you in a long time it's been a long time i you know i just the last time i talked to you was in this garage yeah i don't even remember what was going on but not much yeah i think i just

probably moved here recently i think it was me and and Ian. We were living together. Right. I think it was like a Portland thing. Right. Yeah. And then like within days. Within days, you're everywhere. Yeah. Big star.

Out of nowhere. Yeah. C-level canceled sitcom star. Yeah. But yeah, but dude, I mean, come on, man. I mean, that thing ran for a little while yeah and then you got on another thing yeah what was the what's the other thing uh it's powerless but it also canceled now too so but now you're a seasoned veteran of being canceled yeah i do like

that because i feel like that's fun because you just realize like it's just like like being on a sports team you're like oh just get on the next draft get on the next team well what was the like the whole like uh the undateable thing that ran for what how many three seasons three seasons so like what 36 or what 39 did 36 was it 36 and the struggle of that was you just got cast on that right you went out for it how'd that happen went out for it audition audition callback callback got it and it seemed like it was going to be a fun show that would last a long time but then i remember there were struggles and there was some campaigning yeah yeah and then there was a change where all of a sudden there'd be a live performance

yeah in the middle of a show yeah i mean it became an all-life show yeah did it uh we would do two episodes east coast west coast all live with musical guests yeah it became like a circus because that's what they were wanting at the time they were leaning towards that Neil Patrick Harris live they were doing a lot

of live events like I've never been involved with a big network sitcom was there a feeling that like things were going south or was it a feeling like we're doing new things

I mean I think the great thing about Bill Lawrence is that he was not necessarily always honest, but very honest in his bullshitting. Yeah. Like, you knew where you stood, and he would tell you what numbers we needed to hit, and

if we weren't hitting them, you know. Yeah. And so, it was just like, well, I'm going to do what I can to keep this on. We aren't hitting the numbers, but the network likes us with the people who did what I mean to till this day I've been on that you know the other show that got canceled since I go out on the road it's never about the new show it's about undateable right people still tweet to me about undateable people like that show right I even had meetings with people in the network where they're like oh man if we actually got the ratings that you guys were getting for that show we'd be happy right right because you know things have just changed so it

did so it gave you a following yeah yeah like you people come out and see you because of it yeah definitely that's good that's helpful yeah and what was the other show that got canceled uh powerless it was a dc com back on nbc d book sitcom, Vanessa Hudgens, Dan Cudi. How many did you do that? We taped 12, they aired 10. And that was it? Yeah. But that's sort of, it is a little heartbreaking, isn't it? You get into a momentum with a crew of people, you got writers, you're on set.

It's almost like a play is opening. And then you kind of go through it and you do it and you're like,'s see what happens and you're like yeah that that family's over yeah well i just kind of like you just do anything and you put it out there and then you you like to me as long as you tell me what the what i'm supposed to get and if we don't get it i just go okay like and they were like these are the ratings we need to get we didn't get them right so i'm like okay do i think that you know should the show could have been something if they gave it a more of a chance it could have been but it could have not been and also it's not on you all of it's like the burden isn't on you no at the end of the day i feel like a sports player and the fact that i'm like i play for the my name on

the back of the jersey i just want to be good if number one yeah ron funges yeah if i'm good in this if i'm good in that people will just know i'm good i Number one, Ron Funges. Yeah, if I'm good in this, if I'm good in that, people will just know I'm good. I don't necessarily, it's just so, what I've learned is how hard it is to make anything. Yeah. So I'm like, man, if you guys think it sucks, who cares? At least we made it. It's awesome. Right, yeah.

So how has your life changed in the last couple years? I mean, did you buy a big house? Did you go spend all your money or what? No, I have a little two-bedroom apartment i stay with my son um i mean i guess that would be the biggest change from last time is that my son wasn't living with me full time and now he is yeah and how's that going um it's fun it's a balance um to me it's probably the best thing for me because i can be a little adrift if i don't have right to anchor me down. And he's got autism, right?

Yeah. Yeah. And it was kind of, the last time I talked to you, it was sort of, it felt like you were on top of it and you were working with your ex and the kid was, it was challenging. But how has that changed? How old is he now? He's 14 now. Oh, wow.

So we're dealing with a whole new set of challenges of him just being kind of a moody little teen as well as dealing with the autism and dealing with just him masturbating and stuff like that. Just normal stuff, but then also- How do you discuss that with him? Just tell him to keep it in the house. Not outside? Not outside.

Does he get it? It took him a little bit, but he gets it now. He gets it now, but he's indignant. If you're in his space, he's like, this is my area for doing this. I guess it's hard to... Is there a... In terms of the the autism i mean how does that impact you know the the reasoning i mean when you reason with him like that about does what is he does he not understand like why can't i just do it one of the best

things about him is that he's very rule based he. He loves rules. Oh, he does. As long as you give him clear-cut rules that make sense, he'll follow them. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So he's like, fine, that's fine. Same thing we do with Soda Saturday. He's only allowed soda on Saturday, only allowed to masturbate in the house. He gets it. And so you're going on tour. Yeah.

Now, what are you doing? Are you doing clubs? I'm doing- Or small theaters? Small theater. Oh, yeah? My first little small theater tour. Like, what are you doing were you doing clubs i'm doing um or small theaters small theater oh yeah my first little small theater tour like uh like where are you going like which ones i'm going to uh so i'm going to the bell house in new york that's good the biggest one i'm doing is june 10th at the wilbur and boston that's about 1100 yeah um i opened for john mulaney there and open for aziz there and And I've always wanted, like when I was like, this is the most beautiful place I've ever been. It's a great place, yeah.

So this is like the test run. You're gonna see what you can do. We're gonna see what I can do. See where I can pull, see where I don't pull. Where else you going, Atlanta? Atlanta, Smith Old Bar, the Trocadero, I don't know if I pronounced it now. Oh, it's great.

Okay. Trocadero. Trocadero. That's great, in Philly? Yeah. That's a great room. It's a very odd old theater. Okay. It's sort of like it's got a weird old history and you can feel it. Nice.

And it's like open. Like the theater, like the stage is there. But like in my recollection, for some reason, you can kind of see backstage. It's all sort of open. And it's not a huge theater. I think it probably, what, 450 or maybe between. 600. I checked that sheet.

Right. So like they're right on top of you like there's a balcony and it feels intimate it's a it's a cool old space that's good that's good i'm happy you're going there where else thank you what are the theaters let's talk a little theaters i'm going to back to portland to do revolution hall when you return to portland are you like uh do people like there's one of our guys yeah i really like I mean, I have a lot of friends there. I mean, I feel like more, you know, it's more Carmel is like there because he was actually raised there. I came, you know, just as a teen.

But I love, yeah, the amount of feedback I get and the positive energy I get from people there is amazing. I love going back to Portland. And how's old Ian doing? He's doing great. Working over at James Corden. Just working it out, you know. Yeah, yeah. Trying to get better.

Like everybody. Where you been working out? I've been working out with my trainer, Jorgen. I'm sure he loves to say his name. Jorgen Demay. And how, like, you also ought to weight. Yeah, I lost 140 pounds. Holy fuck.

Thank you. 140 pounds. Yeah, trying to get 20 more off me yeah i mean it all all natural yes sir and like tell me about it like what'd you do what did you change your diet how'd you what how because you were you were large yeah 360 at my heaviest i do you feel like relieved is it easier to walk yes i mean i feel like you know the gist of it yes yes yes yes any of those things what did you do to change it um i mean i just kind of there was just like a series of events and it was mostly that i was traveling a lot more and like my knees would hurt and i was

and i would be like oh i'm like in my early 30s my knees should not be hurting right um i remember one time i was on a flight and then a lady woke me up at the end of it and she was like, I don't want to bother you, but I'm a doctor and I think you might have sleep apnea. You might want to check into it because I heard you snoring on the plane. Really? And I was like, oh, well, that's embarrassing. And then my mother came to visit Thanksgiving a couple of years ago and she just went to go get me some clothes. And she was just like, I don't like, she's's just like I just straight up don't like buying you clothes this size yeah make me feel good makes her sad yeah and then Bill Lawrence was a big uh helper in it

where because he because I would after that I kind of tried to do it on my own a little bit and I lost like 20-25 pounds yeah I got a little bit of money yeah put it right back on, thanks to Postmates. What is that? You don't know Postmates? No, man. It's just white slavery. It's where you get people to just deliver you food at any time of the night. Do you feel like you had a food, like, I mean, it's one thing to be heavy, but do you feel like you were compulsive? Of course, yes.

That's what I'm learning about myself. I mean, I come from addictive people. My dad had, you know, addiction issues. Yeah. Like, so, yeah, I that's what I'm learning is like, I just can't have it around me. Right. I just have to keep it away from me, which is real difficult. I was watching Bill Burr's special and he had like a whole bit about it.

How like he doesn't get it because he's just like, just stop doing it. Stop doing it. And I was like, man, you that is clearly a dude who doesn't get it because he's just like just stop doing it stop doing it and i was like man you that is clearly a dude who doesn't have to deal with addiction issues because you don't get it you don't see the fact that it's drugs are one thing and they're addictive to nothing but you don't have billboards every single where you go like oh we got new strawberry crack we got new double crack we got f five hits a crack for five dollars yeah you know well yeah food's a tricky one yeah because it's not one of those ones right you can't abstain from it completely and old bill like he you know he's just fortunate that he's compulsive about

exercising yeah yeah which i think it becomes a lot of it is like i feel like i can't and i don't know how you feel about it i think maybe you have a good uh you could talk to me about it is that i don't feel like you can truly like get rid of addictions like i can like kind of aim them and change them so i'm like i still have this addictive personality right whatever i do i try right i'd like to do a lot of whether it's stand up or right working in general yeah and so now i just try to like oh i to take the eating one and i do it with exercise and so like i need to exercise six days a week well yeah and there's also this sort of like understanding like you know under like and i think you do but i think the key to it is understanding unmanageability like you know the reason i'm an addict in that it's undeniable is my life became

unmanageable and horrible and and i didn't have any control over it yeah so it's that admission that i can't do that safely you know and i don't seem to be able to stop on my own yeah so i need help yeah and you got help yeah but you didn't like you're not going to meetings no but you're going to the trainer you're learning how to eat better and you're locking in yeah that's good yeah yeah like but uh what'd you have to cut out um i cut out a lot of things and it's just kind of like one by one i pick things that i'm like oh i love this but i love this more so the first one to go was like oh i'm gonna pick between candy and soda and so soda went because i love candy

and now we're trying to get rid of candy and so that's been but like you were you eating like anything good like vegetables or anything when i was at my heaviest yeah um i mean not really it just i couldn't eat too much so it would be like i'd have this giant burrito as my lunch and my dinner and then when i got on the show it was like oh i'm at this burrito and i'm gonna get cheesesteaks delivered yeah you know so and they got craft services and there's that buffet right over there exactly oh shit

and you like the weed yeah to switch to shift from being being high and working out to being high and eating

that's a big jump yeah but I did it my doctor is super like my doctor is the best cause she was just like she was just like the amount of weight you lost. She's like, I don't know.

She's like, I've been a doctor for 20 years and I don't have a single patient who's done this naturally but you. What do you mean? What do they do? Like surgery and stuff? Yeah, surgery. That seems scary to me. That does seem scary. Because it wouldn't change my mindset.

Right. And it's just like you just get a bunch of your gut removed yeah and or tighten what i don't even know what they do but it just like i mean it's rough it seems rough but i mean again i don't discourage anybody from however they feel they need to do it as long as they're trying to do it for their health first of all yeah so how much you took off 100 and what 140 oh my god i can imagine that. I can't imagine having that on me or losing it. But, like, so do you run it every day? I'm not really. I mean, I'm doing some jogging.

I jog on an incline. I've been going to Stone's Yoga on Tuesdays. Shout out to Stone's Yoga Tuesday nights. And then I see my trainer three to four days a week. Well, congratulations. Thank you, sir. So how long is the tour? Tour starts June 8th, and it'll go through august i'm sure i'll pick up some random dates um after that

and then i'm just kind of writing i pitched a show sold the see-saw about a wrestling cartoon that i'm waiting for them to hear wrestling it's a new hot thing is it because it's just been my life so i don't know i'm doing that i'm on that show glow i do you think i do not know that mark yeah you think i wasn't jealous of that you're gonna be one of the big guy you're gonna like no no i'm a wrestling fan we're gonna have to you know we're gonna have to no but i actually think you're perfect for that role like because i know the i mean i don't i have the gist of the role you're playing you're perfect for it that makes sense but it's like we're you know i just want the wrestling fans to dig it because a lot of attention was paid they will awesome kong is in it i mean that chavo fans love allison brie they do love chavo he he was the train he's the guy that

schooled everybody yeah yeah yeah it was good it was good to learn all that stuff i can imagine i didn't have to wrestle but it was good watching them learn and do it i can imagine did you ever do it why don't you do it um mean, I'm interested in talking with some people about going and just doing a couple classes to try it out, but... I talked to AJ Lee here. Did you listen to that one? No, I didn't listen to that one,

but I love AJ Lee. Yeah, it was just the other day. We put it up earlier this week about how... Because it's a lot like stand-up. Yes. You know, you go to these... I don't know if they were classes, but you go to these gyms and you learn,

yeah, I guess they are classes, but then you start to, you just sort of, it becomes this open mic thing. Yeah, and you travel and you go into little, shitty little dive bars and you're getting 50 bucks a night. And I was like, man, I know what it's like to emotionally put myself through a table for 50 bucks at the end of the night, yeah.

I do know that feeling. Well, have you tried tried you've never done any wrestling i've never done any wrestling i'm interested i'm again i'm gonna try to take some train some oh you gotta do it man i am i'm going to mark i'm doing it because i love it i've always loved it i've been really applying it to a lot of my stand-up and the fact of uh uh just faking things up a little bit hiding my failures and really yelling out my successes. I feel like I like to wrestle things up a little bit. So that's an application of the idea of wrestling for a sort of self-improvement in a way.

So, okay. So you're becoming, well, what are those tactics? Well, they can be a heel or a face, I guess. Yeah, but it's really just about, I mean, it's the same same thing in comedy the best you is you turned up to 11 yeah um and then i just really again i just try to like oh i'm having even if i'm like i'll just put up pictures of me doing my sets and i'm never like never showing the other side where it's like 12 people not loving it i just show them like oh i'm on stage looking good, having fun. I guess there is a point where you don't want to show that other stuff.

No. Yeah, I'm better if I'm turned down to seven. That's what it took you a long time to figure out. Yeah, yeah. Eleven's not good for me. I'm good at eleven. Me at seven is sleep. All right, buddy.

So where can they find the dates for the tour? You can find them on RonFunches.com. My website is pretty simple. Okay. And do you live far from here? Kind of far. I live in East Hollywood. I used to live right by here.

This is my old neighborhood. Remember? Oh, yeah. We had ice cream. We had ice cream. It was me and you and who? Jonah? Was it Jonah? Who went with us that time? Yeah, I think it was me and you and who? Jonah? Was it Jonah?

Who went with us that time? Yeah, I think it was me, you, and Jonah, right? Yeah, he was down here, too. Yeah. When are you coming back? Come by a house over here. I'm thinking about it. I'm thinking about it, except for, like, I'm always working at Warner Brothers and stuff,

and it's such a track. Yeah, yeah. I guess that's true. Yeah, I got lucky with the glow shoot. They did it right in Atwater. I was like, what? I didn't even know there were stages. This is the best job I've ever had.

Well, it's good to see you. I'm glad you're doing so well. It's good to see you, Mark. Thanks, Ron. Thank you. The very svelte, Ron Funches, here in the garage, looking healthy, lean, manicured, very funny, very sweet man, very funny man. Go see Ron.

You can go to ronfunches.com for his tour dates. I'm happy he stopped by. So what do you need to know about Jake Fogelness? You're going to know a lot about him. Within an hour, you're going to know a lot about him. But Jake, as I said earlier, I was reminded I needed to talk to Jake when I was talking to Will Arnett. And I remember Jake Fogelnest, his dad, his old man used to bring him to comedy shows when he was like 11 or 12 years. I'm going to talk to him about that.

This is me and Jake Fogelnest here in the garage. All right, Jake, what are you doing? Where are you living? I live in Los Feliz. You do? Yeah.

How long have you lived here? Um, I moved out to Los Angeles about five years ago. Uh huh. Like actually like this month. Yeah. Well, it's just a weird thing.

Like, you know i've known about you and of you and and known you kind of at different points in my life um but uh the arc of it right somehow you landed on your feet well we met i mean we truly met 30 years ago well like it's weird now that i see you like like i kept trying to picture you as a kid and i can do it now uh-huh and i can't quite i kind of can picture your dad sure but like in my memory it was what year okay so i think it would when were you at the village gate top of the village gate oh when when were we doing shows there when i was living in New York, 89 to 92.

So 89 to 92. So around 1989 is probably. Does that sound right to you? That sounds exactly right. Because I had this, you know, this father who, you know, very much like anything. There was no boundaries of like, that's an R-rated film. You can't see that. Right.

It's like I would walk by the A Street Playhouse in New York, see a poster for Rocky Horror. What's that? Take me to that. And my father would. And how old were you? I was about, well, let's see, I'm 38 now. So I was probably 10 in 1989. That sounds about right.

Your dad was sort of a character. You know what it is? He's like- Was he a music lawyer? No, not at all he was a um um okay and and i mean just okay criminal defense attorney okay that was it okay yeah and and he you know and i would come up and visit him on the weekends in new york so he was like from philadelphia uh that's where your mom lived yeah my mom lived in philly my parents got divorced before i was born like oh really yeah it was like like as i understand it was like all right well we have this child coming let's let's do this kid a favor and not be together really yeah and you don't have

any brothers or sisters no brothers and sisters just me okay so the idea of my parents together is like the weirdest thing in the world it doesn't even exist it doesn't make sense what were the hippies did they meet yeah a hundred percent like hippies to the point where i don't really i never knew my grandparents right they were the hippies that like fuck everything fuck you mom fuck you dad i'm going off. You're terrible people. And, you know, they end up in Philadelphia together as like hippies. And, you know, and then I'm and then I'm born. And you still never met your grandparents. I met my paternal grandmother a couple of times and she was nuts.

And the other three grandparents know. I don't know. Because they passed away or they. Well i don't know why because they passed away or they well yes they have to have passed away by now right but i don't know their names that's weird jake it is weird you never talked to your mother about it i a couple of years ago my mother got curious and like you know she has a sister and a brother and so she just- They just disconnected. Totally? Yeah, they totally disconnected from- That's fucking weird. Yeah.

So I really lived in this bubble of just like, my family is just me, my mom, and dad. And they didn't talk to their parents. They didn't talk to their parents. But they have sisters and brothers, all of them? My mother has a sister. I don't think my father has any siblings you don't think i he doesn't he i'm pretty sure i would be very surprised to find

out you had a brother at this point um my mother i know this shit because this is how i grew up this is it was just you know they you know we're hippies our parents were shit they and they were bad parents yeah like they were really bad parents it's amazing that my parents um you know as many mistakes as they made you know you know managed to like i'm sitting here today and i'm okay right you know well it's like okay so you find out that your mother has siblings yeah i know well i know my mother's uh sister uh i she was around um i do have some cousins. And, you know, every once in a while they reach out on Facebook. And I'm not so interested.

Right. You met your grandmother once. I met my grandmother once or twice. You know, I remember her. Her name was Charlotte. And but she was very. I was like 15 and doing a public access show. And I was very naive.

She was very naive. So I would call my grandmother up and like crank crank call her so you used her as fodder yeah used her as fodder and stuff but and all right so that's the backdrop so your parents are divorced it's just me mom and dad right and um so you're you'd go up and visit your dad in new york on the weekends and that was you know new york city in the 80s in a playground. Here's who sticks out to me. You stuck out. Yeah.

Rick Avelis. Oh, yeah. The pigeon. Junkie pigeons. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And then Mark Cohen, who I ended up in a car with with Dave Rathick a couple months ago.

Oh, really? I was like, hey, I used to see you. You know. Check it. Look at that. Jews. and then like you know but and and i i text maybe once or twice but like but he's only there for a little while yeah but you were the you were the guy you know like you were the one that i that both me and my father latched into like yeah he he knows what's up yeah oh yeah the angry guy the angry guy the sweaty guy. The angry guy. The sweaty guy. The sweaty, angry guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

And this is after, for you, like this has to be, this is post you coming out here, improv, Kinison. Yeah, and I was doing the Boston because I couldn't get into the cellar. I did the improv. I would do, Raffy would book me at the gate. Uh-huh. So that was sort of my circle. You know, that was what was happening.

We liked the gate. The gate was like, to me the best and i don't know if it was just the history of the village oh yeah it's a great old place they had a big showroom downstairs for the music and upstairs they had that weird l-shaped room where yeah they had that front room that front part in front of the stage and there was this other part that kind of went off to the yeah the bar was over the yeah yeah the bar was right over there and i I remember I worked there one night with Bill, with Hicks. Hicks would primarily, he was around, but it was only for a very intense short time that he was there.

Yeah, I must have caught him like one night. Right, the improv. Yeah, you I would see all the time. Yeah, I know, because you guys would come and they'd be like, there's that kid again. Yeah, and now I think back to that, and I'm obviously not a stand-up, you know i'm obviously not a stand-up but like is that is that a nightmare for a stand-up comedian to have a a kid in the audience i

distinctly remember one time suzy esmond you know and it's a classic line of hers but suzy esmond seeing me in the crowd and going didn't i fuck you you know and it you know obviously it worked huge with the crowd but like well i mean i think there's you off no because there's a point where like there are parents they're they're kind of like they bring the kid and you can tell they're nervous because they don't know if the kid they don't know what i'm going to do as a stand-up if they know right the podcast or whatever the kid likes me for my tv show right right they're entrusting me with some things and i i can't really respect that in the sense that i'm not gonna not say things because the kid is there of course not yeah but i think i've made some parents uncomfortable depending

you know it makes me a little uncomfortable but with you because your dad was such a kind of this weirdo fucking hipster yeah that you know he was sort of like into it and you were kind of you know we i don't i i don't remember it making me nervous after a certain point yeah but but the weird thing was i think for all of us was that um there was my generation of comics like me and todd and everybody uh who were around who knew your dad and knew you as a kid and then you kind of like surfaced you know as this part of show business yeah which was uh like as a teenager yeah like how like what was because like i what i know about you is like i know you've pulled it together you do some writing at a podcast i know you know that you're working i'm a showrunner now for what uh new show coming

to comedy central later this year called corporate like i'm like i i have really pulled it together well good yeah back then what happened was um you know new york city public access was happening so you remember new york city public access i kind of do i i know that is that what gethard is on yeah gethard's on that so what was going on at the time when you were there? I remember the stripper. Yeah. Robin Bird. Robin Bird. Al Goldstein. Oh, yeah. You know what I mean? But public access at that time, I mean, and it still is, you know, they'll give any lunatic

a half hour on television. What year was that? So 1994. And you were? 14 turning 15 years old. Still in high school. Starting high school in New York City. Because your mom had moved up?

My mom had moved up. She was, and I can't believe she did this. She had a job. She was a graphic designer. And she had a job in New York. And she would commute from Philly to New York every day. That's a brutal commute. Not horrible, but New York's expensive.

Yeah, exactly. So eventually she turns, I turn 13. It's time for me to go to high school. And she's like, we're moving. And I say, all right, but you got to let me get a public access show. And my parents are like, sure, whatever. Yeah. Fine.

And I started doing essentially what is YouTube, you know, but from my bedroom with a video camera and putting it on public access. Well, how did you get the hookup? Like, whose idea was it? It was my idea. And you approached public access? Yeah. And you said, can I get a cameraman?

No, no, I had my own camera. I had saved up money working at a video camp in Philadelphia, you know, where I really learned how to like edit and all that stuff. You went to a video camp when you were 13? Yeah, it's the nerdiest thing. From like 11 to 13, there was a place in Philadelphia that was like for kids that want to learn

how to make movies and stuff. It lasted for a little while. Right. And, you know, and I got good. I was like, you know, like a counselor in training and stuff. Yeah, yeah. But then i moved to new york yeah and um and i i had bought you know like a hi-8 camera yeah and i had a vcr yeah and that was enough right and i have a and and and so i started doing the show and it became what was it called squ It was called Squirt TV. Yeah. So it's you. And then how does it pick up traction?

What happens? So you put- Yeah. I have a theory about that. You put it on public access. It airs Sunday nights at 1230 AM. And at that time, it was still an era where you would flick through the dials. But who were you following, Robin?

I was following nobody. It was just some lunatic with like you know it could have been the black israel you know you have every time you turn on public access it'd be the the real jews are black guys black israelites they could have been the costumes yeah with the costumes yelling in times square yeah i don't know who i was following but i know that um mtv was channel 20 yeah and 120 minutes was airing at that time. Right. So people, so that would go to commercial. People would flick down four numbers on the dial and, you know, see a Devo music video, which I'm showing completely illegally.

So you, from the get-go, were showing music videos? Music videos, clips from movies, dissecting pop culture. That you just edit together. Yeah. So you would host it. Yeah. Cut things in. Cut things in. So imagine you're watching 120 minutes in 1994 oh there's a devo video on i haven't seen this in a while and then 15 year old me pops up and i'm like hey here's my thoughts

on whatever right and people were like what the fuck is this yeah yeah yeah you know and um and it aired in manhattan at that particular time you know, it was sort of this immediate cult phenomenon, early fantasy. This was before guests, so you didn't have guests here. I did not have guests. I had people. I remember getting a phone. I remember saying on the show, like, I need a haircut. And then I very smartly put a voicemail number on the bottom of the screen.

Yeah. And people would call me up. And it would be like, it's uh this is a thirst and more i'm here with kim i'll give you a haircut no yeah like that's like the craziest thing was i used that they might be giant song is like my theme song right the show okay and four weeks in which one i wish it was minimum wage okay from uh from flood because it was short yeah and um four weeks into doing the show i'm doing this thing for a month and i get a phone call and it's like hey this is

john flansburg from they might be giants i'm watching your show and checking out digging it keep up the good work so you got you got a month in you got a pass to use the music got a pass to use the music because somebody said there's some kid but imagine you're 15 years old and like your favorite band calls you up and is like hey hey, I dig what you're doing, man. Like that happened to me. Right. Right. So you got like somehow or another the artsy nerds.

Yes. And the cool rock people. The Beastie Boys and all those people. We're like, you know, who's this kid? Who's this kid? Yeah. That's what happened to me. Yeah, yeah.

who's this kid yeah that's what that's what happened yeah yeah and um and then you know eventually you know who's this kid travels you know up the up the ladder but but before you you make your break um you have this voicemail line yeah right so and and and this was you were into the the punk scene and whatever what Who were your music people then? Like, what were you doing? Were you going, you couldn't go out to shows. You were 15. I could, though, because it was New York City at the time. And like, you know, there were like, you know, was I at CBGB's for anything cool?

No, nothing cool was going. It was done. It was done. But no, I would go see, you know, you know, the Ramones and P and pavement and sonic youth and luscious accent and the beastie boys and all that stuff right yeah that was that was happening that was happening distinctly remember going to see you know the beastie boys at lollapalooza in 94 it was a really interesting time but the voicemail was really funny because for for the one call that i would get you know like hey this is you know john flansburg from

they might be giants there'd be 40 other calls of fuck you you white prep school bitch i'm gonna come kill you like you know just like because you gave a number out and why not why not like and you're following the black israelite so i would and and um and and then what i would do is i would play those calls back on the show the next week because they were just so outrageous and funny. And I don't know where I found a sense of humor. So when did it, like, when did you, who was your first guest? Did you have a guest on the Public Access? Yeah, the first band that came to the Public Access show was Ween, which is kind of perfect for that time.

Yeah. So that was, I think around 1995. Did they play? They did not play, but they came to your house. They came to your mother's house. Yeah.

Just, yes. They came to my mother's house. Just like I'm in your garage. They came to my mother's house, Jean and Dean, Jean and Dean and like hung out and i talked to them and uh and then that set you know once you book ween you can get anybody well that well you can get anyone in

that world in that world yeah yeah yeah so then who comes to your mother's house um well then you know it really starts to pick up with uh with mtv but like you know once mtv got involved that's but were you still shooting at your mother's house? Yes. I was very concerned about that. Um, so after wean comes, how does the MTV deal happen?

I mean, what was, how did ICM play? What happens is these tapes start getting passed around. Oh, that's people. It was like the first South park. It was like Brian Boy Tano.

Exactly. Right. Or, you know, they're traveling metal parking lot or something. Right. So they're traveling. Agents are getting them.

They're being tour buses to agents until, you know, it's in Ari Emanuel's hands, you know, and and they're like, and then all of a sudden it's like MTV is like, hey, go out and cover some spring break for us. Comedy Central is like, hey, why don't you do an hour? We've got a library of stuff. And you're 15, 15, 15, why don't you do an hour? We've got a library of stuff. And you're 15. I'm 15, 15, 16 years old. Yeah. And that happens. Yeah.

And it became a bidding war. Between who? Comedy Central and MTV. Wanted the bedroom show. Yeah, they wanted Squirt TV. And I was adamant because there's the joke in the movie wayne's world where they recreate his basement in a studio yeah i was adamant no we still have to shoot this in my bedroom uh that's just how it has to be done and i and they they agreed now when i look back on that i'm like that's the most impractical fucking thing ever. I invited all of that crew into the house.

Well, how does that change? So who'd you go with? You went with MTV? I went with MTV because Comedy Central was not South Park yet. It was before South Park. And it was big money. Yeah. Yeah.

It's always big money at MTV. So not big money. No, it was a small amount of money. But there was a bidding for it. Yeah, but for a 16-year-old. Yeah. And what's your mother thinking of all this? You know, at a certain point, my parents were incredibly supportive.

But I really think at a certain point, and I don't know if it was when I was 7 or when I was 15, just my parents lost control. Like, it was just sort of like the idea of like hey you're grounded i was like yeah but what does that mean like i come home and i adhere to that and if i don't do it what you're gonna call the cops right like you're gonna throw me in jail like we're gonna go through all that i don't think so so i'm going out and that this was after the success or before i think before right you know so you were living in two different worlds and they couldn't manage you and they were self-involved anyways. Yeah.

Yeah, exactly. My father more so than my mother. Well, you were in her house. I was in her house, you know? And you had crews coming up. Yeah. And, you know, I think there was, here's what was interesting about it. You know, I remember my father, as this started to happen um was like hey i'll uh i'll i'll help

you like i'm a lawyer i'll manage you and i'll help you with this and i was like no fucking way yeah are you are you out of your fucking mind i know i know you yeah you're not you're not like why would i have you you have no professional experience doing this and so we didn't talk for six months oh really yeah like that's how serious i took business problem it was a it was a business but let's wait wait so okay so you take the deal with mtv and now you've got to you know make a schedule you've got to have a like a crew there now what you were dealing with one hi-8 camera i was doing one hi-8 camera and now i distinctly remember like uh jason nash coming in to interview to be hired as a writer

on the show and him not being hired. Yeah. Oh, really? Yeah. No, I'm sure that he's still, I think he's still got resentment about it. He's got resentment. But like all of a sudden I'm this kid navigating through, you know, television. How many were you shooting a week and how big was the crew? We so we did six episodes a week no we did six episodes total this is such a blip on my radar

this thing i did about 50 to 60 of the public access shows and um the mtv show we did six episodes that played twice um and it imploded because all the time while i'm doing this you know i have a whole other secret life going on yeah you know which is you know the older girlfriend and a drug problem yeah you know the older girlfriend how old well you know it's really it's the thing where if the situation was reversed you'd go that's disgusting it's criminal um but with dudes it's like high five she was like 23 i was 15 and now i look back on that and i go wow that's really fucked up that's a fucked up thing that that was going on yeah and she and who got you into drugs the girl uh-huh it's always the girl you know it's always the older girl you know sometimes

i mean yeah i guess you know what that's not true though because i you know had you know i'd already smoked pot i'd already you know you just like just bad bad teenager stuff you know and you know i think all teenagers go through that i just have the disease yeah you know and you don't know you have the disease until you have the disease well so what was happening so when you were doing that where'd you meet her she wrote a fan letter to to the local access show i had a post office box with the voicemail yeah so she wrote a fan letter so you were with her before mtv yeah and you were it's like my first girlfriend doing dope yeah we did yeah yeah i mean i've no problem i don't like to you know when you're meeting and there's somebody telling a story just like yeah man it was the 90s and we were doing dope and it was great and that glamorization

thing like um i've listened to every one of these things you know that you've done so you were talking about it with uh jennifer coolidge recently i love the way you spoke about it so like yeah i was doing dope because it was 1994 95 in new york city and you lived on the block and that was around and it was strong dope and it was good it was white dope and i look back on that now wasn't that tar stuff i've never even you know like well it's like just there was that period there where it was just it was a supermarket well what what changed in new york though was that they realized they could hook guys like you by upping the grade of the dope so so kids could snort it yeah as opposed to boot it exactly so it was this shift from you know the

guys with the spikes in their arms right to this higher graded dope which they were thrilled about absolutely but i found out recently that like you know uh kids i and i didn't finish high school but the kids that i went to i said there was there was everyone was a secret drug addict right and it was just all of a sudden heroin became accessible because you didn't need to shoot it exactly and did you ever get into that that came that came later and it lasted one month And it was just all of a sudden heroin became accessible because you didn't need to shoot it. Exactly. And did you ever get into that? That came that came later and it lasted one month. Well, good for you.

Yeah. No, I. That was the end of it. That I got in and out of that real, real quickly. You know, what I've found, too, is that like it's because it's it's it's I'm coming up on 11 years and it's so not part of my life today i look back on that and i go it's fucking crazy i don't know what i was doing and like what's in like do you have that feeling of like what was i don't even know what i'm taking what is this cut with like no no yeah well of course well you just kind of roll the dice you roll yeah but but to be a young boy doing that you know while also going through like fame was crazy well yeah and

but now like you know with with the with the the prescription pills it's like it's not it's it's horrible it's worse but like because you know there's still a a sort of dealing operation but at least if you're getting pills you know it was made by professional yeah you know what you're getting and yeah but having to go down to my block, you were going down to like. If I had to. The alphabet city? Yeah, I did. And I look back on it now with a lot of empathy for my young self.

So you were 15. You had it like, what was your habit? What was the intensity? Daily? Yeah. You know, it got there. Yeah. I mean, I'm not going to say, you know. know so so okay so you get this deal with mtv yeah and you're with this

23 year old after you shoot you're both hanging out you're snorting the dope you're fucking like half awake all the time yeah yeah kind of sweaty and sick yep and uh you know how does the shit hit the fan i'll tell you exactly how the shit hits the fan. And my parents, who were cordial to each other, but not really together, all of a sudden showed up at my office. It was humiliating. They showed up at my office at MTV one day. You had an office. Yeah. Yeah.

They closed the door. Yeah. And they said, last chance. Last chance. Two of them. Yeah, both of them together. I'd never seen these two people together before. So I was like, uh, what do you mean?

And they took out, um, uh, uh, you know, uh, just a bunch of empty dope bags and dumped them on my little envelopes, envelopes. And they said, last chance with the weird markings on him. Yep. Last chance. Yeah. Last chance for what to tell us the truth oh what's going on but had they asked you before no i mean i think that they had they

had rumblings i don't think the first chance was the last chance yeah exactly and they shipped me off to um you know a rehab and um but when that happened were had you shifted to needles no oh that that comes later oh good this is a multi-tiered story oh yeah yeah no no i have i have 11 years over i'm 38 this you know it comes back around and it's not you know like yeah um but um but i was 17 and i went to uh a rehab and um and then mtp like, fuck this kid? Or you had to... I, you know, Mark, I held on hope while I was at that rehab for 30, 60 days. But you had to come clean with them? You know, it had to be handled.

I don't know how much they knew, how much they did. I disappeared, you know? Oh, yeah. And I came back to, you know, that office that I had. Two months later. Two months later. Yeah. Maybe 90 days later.

And it was a bunch of stuff in boxes. And that's when I knew it was over. Uh-huh. That's when I knew it was over. So you'd done six episodes on MTV. Who were the guests on those? Oh, you know, Adam Sandler, Ginny Garofalo, the Fugees, Cypress Hill. That was a fun day.

My mom comes home from work after a hard day and fucking weed yeah just weed yeah in the fucking hallways

yeah yeah Chibomato with like you know Sean Lennon playing and you know Liz Fair I mean just of that period of time

you couldn't ask for well that's when I think I knew like that was around the time where I'm like wait that kid yeah and also Luna Lounge is happening

at that time and I'm there every week right because that's like yeah church yeah luna lounge was you're hanging around again i'm like you're that kid yeah because you're always that actually and yeah i was always that kid and actually it was after um because i was hanging out and it was rebar yeah it was it was before luna oh yeah that the place where everyone sat on the floor yeah it was not isn't a weird part of town it was well now it's like you know chelsea or whatever but at that point it was not really built up or whatever was it was it 18th yeah 18th or street and somewhere yeah yeah yeah so i would go to rebar because becky i think day becky was booking it right and that's where i saw

you yeah and todd yeah and you know sarah silverman. So then what happens is I get, you know, I go to rehab. It's not a great rehab. It's, it's not a great, you know, it's one of these, you know, West Palm beach, Florida. It wasn't a very expensive rehab, you know, cause my parents don't like, I was the poorest kid at my school, which was like, it was the first time I became aware of class. Like, you know, I was, you know, we were middle class people living in new york city in the 90s and i was like you could do that then you could do that then yeah now you can't no uh but you could do that then and i went to this school probably on some sort of scholarship uh and it was rich kids yeah it was rich kids so i made friends with like the one punk

yeah in in in the school yeah like i've got the great rock and roll swindle and laser disc come over and i'm like oh thank god and you know and uh but but the but i went to this rehab and it was one of those we're gonna break you down and build you back up yeah and it was humiliating because the show was still airing on mtv while i was in rehab uh-huh so the counselors who all of which have gone out and relapsed i've found out uh because i've googled them oh really they would come and they would yell at me and stuff but it's but it planted the seed and it got me into the rooms yeah you know what i mean got me into the secret society stuff and so i'm 17 18 years old and that is that is my life for several years you know going to that and at the same time how you making a living well uh i'm on k-rock i i i called up the request line at k-rock and i said

hey it's jake i had that mtv show i want a job and they said come on in yeah and i had a meeting with them and like in la no k-rock in new york okay so where howard stern was yeah yeah and you know and they put me on the radio uh-huh and you know i daily um not daily at first weekly um but you know when you're 17 18 years old you're still living at home this is right there's enough pocket change and sure but it started a radio career for me uh-huh and um and you know it saved me and then at the and then at the same time you know upright citizens brigade came from chicago and i mean here's do you still have an agent is it did re end up representing you that all goes away i you know what i mean yeah you know it's funny because i'm back with like

i got an email a couple years ago from ari like hey thank you to all our people like it was the 20th anniversary of endeavor and it's like thank you to all our people that have been with us for all these years and like our like i'm at wme now and ari's like hey i'm proud of him yeah you know what i mean so it's and i've seen him over the years and stuff but but but the upright citizens brigade came to to new york city i remember yeah because they used to perform at luna and the yeah like i remember before they moved yeah they were sort of around they didn't have a theater yet yeah no as i remember basically new york city they they're like, hi, we're the UCB. We're going to come here.

We're going to get our own TV show. We're going to start our own theater. We're going to start teaching classes. And New York City was like, yeah, that sounds great for some reason. Yeah, but did it happen that way? Was that always their arcing agenda? I felt like they were a sketch troupe that was working a space, and then it started to pick up. Absolutely.

And they got their own space exactly they were they were sketch comedians trying to do sell a show to comedy central and they there was no improv and sketch community in new york it didn't exist right there was just like you know now there's too much of it but right what was that one place it was it was the chicago city city limits where you'd have like you know which is so funny now because you think of that and it was just like paul sheer and eddie pepitone playing short form games and i just imagine eddie going back to his apartment afterwards and being like why yeah yeah yeah is that who was in it were they in yeah they were in it but it was sort of like

a franchise tourist attraction it was a tourist attraction it wasn't you know whereas ucb were coming in and doing and you know improv was you know for me what it was was upright citizens brigade was oh my god these are people my age yeah that want to do the same kind of things i did the only reason i put myself on television was not because i was a narcissist or something or wanted to be on television is i didn't have anybody to do a show with because my heroes have been like john waters right john hughes right but when you're 14 15 years old i guess i gotta do this myself well yeah and it's also that that the culture was so different and like you know you could have these heroes that were these kind of outliers and

weirdos yeah that doesn't it there was a, like New York was very specific to that. And everybody seems sort of around. Do you know what I mean? I remember going to see the movie Kids. Yeah. At the Angelica Film Center opening night and walking out of the theater. And there were all the kids from the movie Kids waiting to be recognized. Right.

You know? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like that was, you know, part, you know. Yeah, I was you know part you know yeah i remember new york then i remember that that was you know my new york and then and then thank god ucb opened up because then it was like oh this is focus well you're on the radio at that point i got a job on the radio which i quit because they wouldn't the final straw was i had a show was it daily at this point it was not daily i actually i ended up going back there and they did put me on daily but like i was 18 years old yeah and i

was in control of the playlist yeah and then a new program director came in and he's like you know we're we're taking control of the playlist away from you uh-huh and at 18 years old you tell me i can't play a slater kenKenny record on the radio. Yeah. I fucking quit. Yeah. I quit. Yeah. And then Upright Citizens Brigade happened. When did they open that theater?

They opened the theater? They opened the theater. The first one with the weird seats? Yep, on 22nd Street. Where'd they buy all those seats? From a bus station or something? They can't. Well, it was the Harmony Burlesque Theater.

Right. You know, it used to be like a burlesque joint on 22nd Street and then Matt Walsh had the apartment upstairs where people would get handjobs. Yeah. Not from Matt Walsh,

but you know. Back in the day. Back in the day, you know. So they had to, you know, and every once in a while it was so funny

because I ended up working at the theater and eventually becoming like an artistic director for a while. You did? Yeah. Like,

but like every once in a while like a Hasidic Jew would come in during the day. From the old days? I'd be like uh where's the girls where's cherry yeah and we were like it's a comedy theater now and then they were like oh and they would take a flyer pretending to be interested where's the girls you know yeah but but ucb saved you know saved me because you just became a sketch rat you just started hanging hanging around. Yeah. Sketch rat. I just made that up. No, but that's a good word for it because I was the guy.

It was like, you know, I took the improv classes and it was different than there was how many people now there's thousands of people taking classes. It was just like, it was just a couple of them. It was the four of them. And then they had like, what, a hundred students. I happen to be one of them. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. I took improv classes because, you know, like I started hanging around ASCAP, which is where I met Tom Sharpling for the first time and Horatio Sands and then Adam McKay. Because it was like the improvisers at that time that would do the Sunday Night ASCAP show were Adam McKay, Tina Fey, Brian Stack. At the original UCB? At the original UCB. It was the top yeah you know amy poehler you know the the ucb guys themselves dratch dratch um i remember seeing dratch and fay do their i remember when they kind of popped dratch and fay dratch and fay yeah you know

directed but and i took her that show was very meaningful to me because it was the first time i had seen like what a real produced sketch show could be like and matt and matt besser was was really like good to me in the sense that he called me up be like uh jank you're in challenge of tuesday nights now okay my you know what i mean yeah yeah and and it and it it threw me i said to best or like hey i really want to start like writing and directing sketch because i i would do improv and i was on herald teams and i was like this is all great and fun and i understand that this is an art form but maybe we should write some of this shit down and make it better right like that was that guy so you want

you didn't really want to be a performer no i've never i've never wanted to be a performer you know um the radio stuff uh i eventually ended up going a new program director came back yeah at k-rock and that guy was awesome yeah and he was like hey why don't you come back and like you can't pick the music by that time i was a little older i'm like i'll play whatever you want me to play yeah you let me talk on a mic and you know but he was cool he was like hey your friend paul sheer is pretty funny like and we're nobodies at this point why don't you guys talk a little longer in between the songs right you know like i had more free it was fun right it was fun and then so okay so when when besser says you got tuesday nights you're a stage manager what no i'm booking like the open mic or whatever and then also starting to besser like taught a sketch class

and you're pushing people there on the radio show. Yeah. Sometimes. Yeah. It did have that outlet, but like, but basically what happened was I started to meet guys like Brett Gelman and John Daly and they're like, Hey, will you direct my one man show? So I would direct it like Brett Gelman's first one man show. John Daly's first woman.

We're all kids. All right. So when do the drugs come back? The drunk. Okay. show john daly's first woman we're all kids all right so when do the drugs come back the drunk okay so from 17 until about 22 i'm good yeah i'm good and um you know ucb and comedy culture you know there's mcmanus you know and what the bar the bar you go drink afterwards and i said you know what i've got i've got my stuff under control well my problem wasn't alcohol it was dope it was dope you know and i'm gonna have a drink and see what happens that first one's good right well what happened was nothing

the world didn't collapse yeah it was you know you know it was a slow decline back uh so like 22 um i'm okay i'm you know what i mean did they move theaters yet um i remember when we lost the theater we opened i think the new theater which is the current one there have been one of the two current ones in new york was 2004 because i was i remember that being one of the last shows I did was Adam McKay. I was sitting at a bar with, it was, it was during the George W. Bush election.

He was like, it says to me in like sheer, he's like, there should be a show at UCB called George Bush is a motherfucker. And we're like, we'll do that show. He's like, I'll produce it.

Yeah. And we did this like, you know, pretty political, you know, for us a sketch show at UCB. And that was sort of the last thing. And that was at the New Theater.

But the drugs came back at the end, and it was very, very quick. It was the drinking. It was the drinking, and it was like, oh, I can't. So you're hanging out. Are you making a fool out of yourself? I'm not making a fool out of myself. um i'm not but i'm not fooling anyone right if that makes sense but you everyone knew well i think that like there were incidents where it's like hey you got to apologize to that guy uh because last night you made him cry oh yeah you know what i

mean like i got that in me yeah Yeah. You know, especially with alcohol. Right. But really, I was hiding. You know, I was the type of, you know, the way that I use drugs and alcohol was like, this is great. It shuts off all feelings. Yeah. You know?

Right. So, it was the feelings taker away-er. Right. And it was like alone in my house. I wasn't like out partying. It was that isolated. So, how long did you start, how long drinking before you started using the drugs again um a couple a couple years oh really like four or five years what was the decision to the to get back on the drugs yeah it showed up oh really it's you know it just showed up and it was like a woman no actually it just it just showed up one night and it was like well

i'm handling the alcohol what's this gonna you to, you know, what's this going to do? Snort some dope. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And then, you know, crash. And, you know, I think, you know, I hate to say this. And again, I don't mean to glamorize it, but I think you can you can sort of manage a dope

habit for about a year and a half before anyone catches on. I think that's right. That's about a year and a half before anyone catches on. I think that's right. That's about a year and a half before anyone catches on. But yeah, no, I had friends that were like, what the fuck's going on with you? What's worried? And you were back for you went out for a year and a half on the dope. Yeah. Yeah.

And but still working at that time. And, you know, I'll tell this story now. But like Howard Stern announced he was going to Sirius. Right. And I knew that I was going to be out of a job because they were going to switch formats to an all talk format. At K-Rock?

At K-Rock. It was going to become Free FM. Yeah. And David Lee Roth was their big idea to replace howard stern right so i said my days are numbered and um i've always had a great relationship with the stern show yeah they were great and i remember going and talking to gary at like six in the morning i was working the overnight or whatever and i was like does howard know that a bunch of djs all across the country just got fired and he's like he's like do you want to go in and talk about it i was like yeah so i went in and i'm talking to howard about that um and what happens

is cbs um radio which i don't think exists anymore um in one day suspends me and then calls a few hours later to offer me a talk show huh so i and at the same time i'm negotiating to go over to sirius because i see the end of the line yeah i do a talk show at free fm for six weeks with uh uh jackie clark who's another comedian at ucb yeah a successful tv writer now and we do this show and then i went over at sirius and then um and then some really great people sat me down and told me their stories they were like they saw it they you know and um they saw what the the shifting they saw it on my face oh you mean yeah you were fucked up yeah they saw it on my face they knew they knew the deal they told you some stories they told yeah three great people told me some stories and uh and i and sober people Sober people. Sober people. Yeah. And a week later, you know, June 26, 2006.

Yeah. I was like, that's it. And ran up to a meeting and never, and haven't been back since. So, well, but so when they were telling the stories, was that that month where you started to get heavier? Yeah. So you were. Yeah.

It fucks your skin up and everything. Yeah. No, I had a, i'm i had a like i had a beard you know i'm not a guy who should have a beard you're probably more skinny than you were yeah and i'm skinny as it is it's like you know they were like that it's you know it's hard it's you start to look like a ghost yeah you start to you know you start to look like a ghost and and and thankfully um i i had serious and i took um you know and i had a job and i took sobriety very very seriously how bad was the kick um there have been worse thank god you know i have i got lucky man you

know i i got lucky i it's a feeling i never want to feel again and i withdraw yeah you know i wake up every morning and i go i don't wake up every morning there's some mornings i wake up and i go god i get you know as bad as it is i don't i'm not feeling that yeah yeah you know what i mean it wasn't it wasn't so bad but um it wasn't great but um but i just stayed in it was i i i got the message this time yeah you know what i mean and i did the thing and, um, and then slowly, but surely, um, I started to put myself out there, you know, and what was the first thing? Well, it's weird because the interesting thing about our community, if you're not a guy who's some sort of fucking rogue cowboy who just is sort of like, fuck you, I'm doing standup, not any help, but like you were sort of locked in with a community that worked together.

So whatever you went through, you still had all these people. You had Shearer and McKay. And you had people that knew you and Besser and all these guys. And I think that they were worried, but they weren't. There's nothing anyone can do. There's nothing anyone can do. But what I'm saying is that on the other side of it, when you want to kind of figure out how to get back in,

you've got numbers to call. Well, for me, it was also like getting over the fear of writing and being a perfectionist. And also, I feel like I was the last person of my generation of UCB people to move to los angeles and you know i it got to be about 2011 i know that feeling you know yeah i'm sure you do it was like what the you know everybody came out here with their sketch groups and their things and i'm like i'm not going there and and i really you know and i you know, and I, you know, God, I'll tell you, you know, I didn't go to a friend's wedding because I was embarrassed.

You know, I just was embarrassed about where I was at. I felt like all of my people that I had come up with had surpassed me. So you had the resentment. It wasn't it wasn't resentment. It was shame. You failed. I had failed. Yeah, I wouldn't go to a a couple high school reunions because yeah and and this friend of mine called me and was like

hey man why'd you you know and i cried on the phone and they were like that's ridiculous that's ridiculous and and i i got over it was really a pivotal pivotal moment the guy who got married called you yeah he called it's like why didn't you come and i was like i'm i was ashamed and he's just like that is all in your fucking head man that is and also like it's like it was my wedding it was my wedding yeah it was my wedding what the fuck is wrong with you yeah and got you know like i've made a loss for that you know yeah but then i was like he's right you know he's right and you know and i really had it's not all about you yeah it's not all about me and i'd had this thing of everybody had surpassed me.

And now there's some people I look at, fuck, I've surpassed them. Well, thank God. At least you got one or two of those. Mark, I wouldn't lie. I wouldn't say it felt nice. But I moved out here. And I said to Sirius XM, and I did my job very well there because that's the easiest job in the world. Sure.

But it was soul crushing because here's the job. It's going in for an hour a day and going, hey, what's up, man? Here's the arcade fire. And it was like data entry. Yeah. But yeah. And eventually it's not like you're making a fortune there. You're not making a fortune.

There's only one guy making money over there. Yeah. There's one guy making money over there. There's no creative fulfillment. Yeah. You know. Now, like, it's weird. Like, every time you go to you go to serious to do anything it's like is this under construction yeah exactly yeah you know and and and i love the people that i work for but i said to them listen i um i am moving to los angeles yeah because i have to move to los

angeles um i would i can do my job from los angeles and thankfully they said yeah yeah you can so i you know i immediately moved out here and um with the help of uh uh jeff ulrich i started working for earwolf like now when did when did you and jen kirkman start up okay so jen and i um and we're not together anymore but we've been on and off for a while yeah we've been on and off and um jen we met um at the end of 2011 and it was a weird thing of like out here um no in new york actually and it was a weird thing of like hey we're just having fun and like oh now i live in la oh you know and um you know jen is is fantastic and and great and uh you know but i i don't want to tell her her story but i'll just say you know yeah we were on and off and it's hard to be a person you know it's really hard to be a person especially like you two yeah yeah

especially us two you know yeah i i'm sure that. Sure, you're both a lot to handle. Uh-huh. So I move out here, and I'm helping out at Earwolf, and they're like, you can do whatever podcast you want. And so I start doing a podcast, which is, you know. Which one? It's called the Fogelness Files. You don't do it anymore? I don't do it anymore.

I stopped doing it in 2013 because I got too busy. Yeah. But for me, it was like, I want to let people know, hi, I'm here. Yeah. I'm alive. I have some things to say. Right. And also as an excuse to meet new friends or also talk to people that I admire.

Well, you're over at earwolf so you got you know ackerman and everybody guys you knew from new york and i want to say scott ackerman did one of the nicest things ever he took me out to lunch yeah like 2011 and he's just like what do you really want to do yeah and nobody had ever asked me that question like that before did you know i i said i did i said i want to i want to write and i want to make stuff with my friends yeah and what happened was um uh i started doing the podcast started meeting people and then i got hired to write for billy on the street and um billy eichner billy eichner people like that guy they love him he's the best he's just

there's no one funnier there's no one classier in show business and anyhow and I understand his you know pop culture sensibility

and started writing for his show and and I did well there and I knew that when the show and then his agents were like

oh we like Jake we'd like to talk to him and I made it my business um this probably was december of 2012 2013 i can't remember but like i made i said when this show starts airing i better have a new spec script uh-huh and i wrote um uh i wrote a spec script and you know the agents were like for a show existing existing? No, no. For an original script. An original script.

Yeah. I wrote an original script. Yeah. Which was untitled Jake Fogelman's project for a while. And it was called, eventually became Start Making Sense. And what happened was the agents were like, hey, this is good. And we want to, you know, rep you. But we also think we can sell this.

And they sent it out to a we can sell this. And, um, they sent it out to a bunch of production companies and they all responded. And in particular red hour. Yeah. And Ben Stiller's company, Ben Stiller's company, but then Ben read it. And,

um, Oh yeah. He asked me if I would play. Yes. This is, this is the thing. Yeah. Because Ben read it and I had this call with Ben and he's like,

I want to direct this. Yeah. And I want to pitch this with you. And, um, do you know Mark Maron? And I go, yeah. And I wrote this script. You know, I didn't have an actor in mind, but I needed a voice. IFC at the time and would be unavailable. But I wrote with your voice in my head. And it's like, maybe it could be John Cusack. Maybe it could be Steve Coogan. Who knows? It was a narrator?

No, it was the lead role. And what happens is Ben Stiller attaches himself to direct this and we go out and pitch it. And IFC buys it. They buy the script. And they order three more. And at the script yeah and they order three more and at the same time they order three backup scripts yeah they i write half a season right of a tv show by myself and you never made it no they didn't make it because i you know as i um i understand that they don't have any money yeah you know not much anyway not much um but they were great to deal with and they were

wonderful but that writing that script got me other jobs and then michael showalter and david wayne i got a call um from my now agents and they said they're gonna do one hot american summer as a as a television series what was the funny or die story well funny or die it was just like come here write sketches make stuff said that yeah well mckay had talked to people and billy in the street was produced by funny or die and it was just like we should have jake around to write and direct right and they did and i really thrived and you did a lot of stuff i did a lot of stuff but i was only there for i was there for eight months because i got hired to work on but you're like in house at funny or die i was in the house at funny or die so you were still one of the best jobs I've ever had.

It's like working at Saturday Night Live with none of the pressure and none of the money. But also like a kind of like, not a recurring cast necessarily. Not a recurring cast, but like, hey, Chevy Chase is coming in. Right. And like, you know.

To do a thing. To do a thing. So you were sort of a segment producer slash director. I was a writer director. I wrote sketches and. To do a thing. To do a thing. So you were sort of a segment producer slash director. I was a writer director. I wrote sketches and directed sketches there. Interesting. And then I had had this script and then, you know, Wet Hot American Summer. They hired you?

They hired me. And that was really interesting because I'm in the movie for 10 seconds. I was like 19. The new one. No, the original. I'm in the original for 10 seconds. Most of it got cut out because it was too disgusting but um how'd they find you at 19 they found me at 15 because the state were all those guys were like in their 20s right and watching public access and then i was

at mtv they did my mtv pilot so to get hired as an adult they did the square tv pilot the entire state the entire state came to my bedroom. Interesting how everybody's connected. Yeah. Yeah. But then to get hired as an adult. Did they all knew you? So you had one scene in the original Wet Hot American Summer that got cut down. Yeah, they got cut down.

And then it was like, but my agent said, we're submitting you. They liked my script and they hired me. It was my staff writing job, first staff writing job. And that ended on a Thursday. me it was my staff writing job first staff writing job and that ended on a thursday and then um which which staff writing job wet hot american summer that was a staff writing job for a movie for for netflix for the netflix series oh right right the first netflix series and then um what happened was julie klausner and billy eichner um sold their show to hulu difficult people i started People. I started that on Monday in New York City and worked. I still work on Difficult People.

We're on the third season of that. I'm a consulting producer now. Yeah. And IFC passed on my thing, and then Kay Cannon called me last year and was like, what's your- Who's that? Kay Cannon's awesome. She wrote at 30 Rock for many years and the new girl.

And she wrote both the Pitch Perfect movies. Yeah. And she's like, I've got this Netflix series Girlboss starting. And what's your availability? And I was hired as a co-producer and writer on Girlboss. And that was so much fun that comes out on netflix april 21st and that's very much the john hughes side of me yeah you know it's it's a it's an incredible story uh it's based on a true story but it's definitely embellished and stuff and then

and then comedy central called with the show corporate which is coming out later this year and that was um some friends of mine jake weissman matt ingabrettson and uh pat bishop had you know wrote a script made a pilot yeah and they comedy central needed a showrunner they had never made a show before and so my first show as a showrunner is the show corporate which is coming out so you're like a writer guy yeah yeah like i'm at the you know wga showrunners meetings like talking about are we striking are we not striking right like that which is all i've wanted to do is be an executive producer i want like when i used to watch saturday night live as a kid yeah i didn't want to be in the cast i wanted lauren's job okay and i have my own loans we're not quite there yet well but i have my own Lorne story. You're not quite there yet. Well, but I have my own Lorne story.

Yeah. Which happened a couple weeks ago. Really? Just a fresh Lorne story? It's a fresh Lorne story. Hot off the press? Hot off the press. I've been in a room with Lorne Michaels 200 times over my life just by going to SNL after

parties and hanging around. New York, yeah. In New York. Yeah. And nobody ever introduced me yeah to Lorne Michaels right and you know with Lorne you don't go up to him right you know you you just uh you need to be summoned you need to be summoned so um I was at um a party and I'm like fuck this i i see a friend of mine uh and i see horatio says he goes hey lauren's over there you're gonna go talk to him as a joke yeah he goes you're gonna go talk to

lauren and i go you know what i am gonna go talk to him because for 200 i've been in a room with him 200 times none of you fuckers ever had the courage to introduce me because you're you're all afraid of your jobs or whatever yeah like he's this mythic figure i am and i do find myself in a conversation with lauren michaels yeah and i so lauren i'm sorry i've been in a room with you 200 times over the years and uh you know i'm i'm running a show for comedy central i've done this and i just want to say shake your hand and say hey it's nice to meet you yeah and he goes oh it's good you're speaking up and i go yeah and then thank god elizabeth banks is there and she goes polite but condescending polite but condescending but it gets better so elizabeth banks is like there she goes yeah oh

you don't know jake and i'm like oh thank god yeah yeah and uh and i go no he goes no and i go so he goes so it's just going well for you and i I go, yeah, man. Yeah, it actually is. The meeting with the Lord. And then we just started talking, but it was like, it demystified him. I was like, oh, you're just a person. Yeah. You're just your guy who's done a lot of stuff. Yeah.

And he's funny, right? He's funny. I was like, oh, you're just a funny guy. Is this going well for you? Yeah. So is this going well for you? But I came back and was like, yeah, it is. What am I, you're like yeah it is what am i you know you had nothing to lose really i had nothing to lose yeah that's the best time to talk to anybody it was the best way to go through life it was so fucking

freeing yeah because after all of this stuff that i've been through and like you know childhood trauma it's like all i've ever wanted to do was make stuff on tv with my friends and now it's like i'm at that point of new goals. I'm like, I should write a movie or what's a little movie I could make. Yeah. You know what I mean? But I'm a writer guy. Good.

I'm a writer. Well, I'm glad we talked because I think the one thing that was and this has happened with other people. There's a couple other people in my life where this is the problem. Like, you know, I've known you forever and you're always around. But in some part of my brain, you're like. What's that guy do? What's that kid do?

Yeah. No, but here's the thing. I know that about you. And I've known that we, I've known for years that we would sit down and have this chat. Right. It was like, it would happen when it was supposed to happen. Yeah. But I know you, you get that, you you know but i have to say over the years

there's that fogelness kid but you were but but you're but you're kind of not like that anymore because we were at a we were at sarah's party and i remember you going hey man you want to meet jerry stall you never met jerry stall you got to meet him right yeah and i'm being like jesus christ maron's like just taking me over to like he's you're not like i know you had me placed in this certain way right because you know me since i was eight and i also i'm like is this kid like talented or is he like a fucking vine star like what is this i know that about you but but like actually i'm pretty fucking good yeah i believe you no i i yeah it started to change. I'm glad I introduced you to Jerry. That was cool.

Hey, you dope guys. But then we have the Stiller connection. And then I saw you. And Jen, well, yeah, then I saw you. Well, that was years ago with Jen. I was sort of like, Jake, you're with Jake? Oh, I know, yeah. No, but that was the first time.

But then there was, you know, not too long ago. And we had locked eyes. You're like, yeah, okay. Yeah, yeah. Oh, yeah oh right you're and at a thing at a thing yeah yeah at a benefit or whatever and um and uh you know every time i've seen you it's always like like you i think it's because of the circumstances you've you've learned like well it can't be just like a teenager anymore no i know i knew you were doing things just well i'm listening to will arnett and you know my name comes up and it was it came up positively no way i never had negative feelings really that's the thing about like i have never

i don't have one of those like yeah ah fucking mary was an asshole to me stories i've always liked right yeah because i've always like got right got you and like you were like you were never because i first of all i probably because i was no threat to you well no but you were just this kid and then like you know it was but like it was funny because when will said that like it really struck in my it stuck in my head it's sort of like why haven't i talked to that guy yet like he's got a perfect timing for me i have three tv shows coming out the next year so thanks yeah well you'll be doing ads for one of oh good at least a comedy central one probably yeah you

will be doing ads for corporate and but um but no like also just like i've always you know thought of you as like you know you look look man you ask on the show all the time who are your guys yeah like you're one of my guys you've always been one of my guys, Mark. Thanks, buddy. You really have. Well, I'm glad to talk to you. It was fun. All right, cool.

You feel good about it? Yeah. Cool, man. Bill Jakey. Jake. Nice talking to him. That's the longest conversation I've ever had with Jake, and I'm glad we had it. Hope you enjoyed that.

All right? Oh, man. Am I set up to play guitar? Did I play acoustic guitar already for you? Maybe I'll just do some acoustic. Yeah, I don't... Okay, yeah, I will. I will. Thank you. guitar solo Boomer lives! Almost, almost anything. So no, you can't get snowballs on Uber Eats. But meatballs, mozzarella balls, and arancini balls?

Yes, we deliver those. Moose? No. But moose head? Yes. Because that's alcohol, and we deliver that too. Along with your favorite restaurant food, groceries, and other everyday essentials. Order Uber Eats now. For alcohol, you must be legal drinking age. Please enjoy responsibly.

Product availability varies by region. See app for details. It's a night for the whole family. Be a part of Kids Night when the Toronto Rock take on the Colorado Mammoth at a special 5 p.m. start time on Saturday, March 9th at First Ontario Centre in Hamilton. The first 5,000 fans in attendance will get a Dan Dawson bobblehead courtesy of Backley Construction.

Punch your ticket to Kids Night on Saturday, March 9th at 5pm in Rock City at torontorock.com.